Anole (comics)

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Anole

Anole
Art by Skottie Young.

Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	New Mutants v2, #2 (August 2003)
Created by	Nunzio DeFilippis Christina Weir Carlo Barberi

Characteristics
Alter ego	Victor Borkowski
Species	Human Mutant
Affiliations	New X-Men Xavier Institute Student Body The 198, Alpha Squadron
Abilities	Green skin, Spiked carapace, Prehensile and elastic tongue, Superhuman agility, Wallcrawling, Camouflage

Anole (Victor Borkowski) is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Universe, one of the student body in the Xavier Institute, and a former member of the Alpha Squadron. He is one of 27 students to retain his powers post-M-Day.

1 Fictional character biography
2 Powers
3 Trivia
4 Appearances
5 External links

[edit] Fictional character biography

Victor is a sixteen-year-old mutant and born and raised in small-town America, he lived a normal life despite his reptilian features. The close-knit community accepted the boy for who he was until anti-mutant sentiment began to spread. For his own safety, his parents sent him to the Xavier Institute where he quickly excelled academically.

When the advisor system was set up at the Xavier Institute, Victor chose Karma as his advisor. However, during the formation of training squads throughout the school, he was reassigned to Northstar's Alpha Squadron. At first, he was quite friendly with Julian Keller and the other Hellions, but now seems closer to his teammates. He was especially close to Northstar and was deeply affected by his death. (He, like most of the students, was unaware of Northstar's resurrection until the Children's assault on the Institute, during which a brainwashed Northstar knocked him out.) Victor is gay, and Northstar helped him to come to terms with his sexuality. It is uncertain whether or not he has yet come out to the rest of the school. Victor's chosen foreign language is French.

Anole was revealed to be one of only 27 students at the Institute who didn't lose his mutant powers in the aftermath of House of M. The squad system was dissolved, and the remaining students were merged into one group. Shortly afterwards, Emma Frost set up an all-out brawl amongst the remaining students to determine who would become the team of X-Men trainees; Victor was not selected, yet still resides and trains at the Institute. When Northstar attacked the Institute, Anole found him and was able to temporarily snap him out of the mind control set in place by the Children of the Vault. However, Victor's joy at seeing his former mentor was short-lived, as Jean-Paul returned to his mind-controlled status and soundly defeated him.

Despite only rare appearances, Anole has developed quite a fan following and has been the only student outside of the New Mutants and Hellions squads to be featured regularly. He has made numerous appearances during the new creative team's run on the title, having a more active role in the plots than most of the other background characters. It has been stated by the writers that Anole will be featured heavily and will have an importance in their next arc, named "Quest for Magik", starting in New X-Men #37.

[edit] Powers

Victor using his camouflage power.

Victor's reptilian mutation gives him green skin, a spiked carapace instead of hair, a prehensile and elastic tongue, the ability to stick to solid surfaces, enhanced agility, and the ability to camouflage himself, blending into his surroundings. Anole seemingly has trouble controlling his powers when emotionally unstable.

[edit] Trivia

Victor's codename "Anole" is a type of lizard also popularly known as American chameleon although the two are not closely related at all.
His codename was given to his creators (Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis) via a post on their forum.
It was clearly implied through dialogue that Victor was gay, and his sexual orientation was confirmed by the writers online and reaffirmed in The X-Men: 198 Files.
A divergent story plot involved Anole committing suicide after coming out at parent's day and being shunned by his parents and two closest friends, Josh and Julian. Weir and DeFilippis had to scrap this New Mutants storyline at the last minute due to the wishes of Marvel not to show such a controversial matter in the book. Weir and DeFilippis later stated that they were happier with losing this plot, as they did not like the direction it would have taken Julian, also noting that "The Julian who developed since then is not a guy who'd have a problem with Victor being gay. In fact, he'd wipe the walls with anyone who did." [1]
In the New X-Men: Yearbook Special #1 it's listed he likes theatre, frisbee and basketball and dislikes traditions and bad action movies. He was voted Best Actor by the student body.